The Monument and a few others

We left Tower Bridge and walked back. We decided to do the Monument--which is a reminder of the first time London burned down. They have a honorary drinking fountain right outside as well so that is fun. It was over a hundred steps to the top. I carried Scout up to the top and then gave her to Matt.

 

This was also a really pretty view. It is all caged in so it is pretty safe.

Why does she love to stick her tongue out?

They have these going all the way to the top. Matt had to pose for me.

The monument.

We took the bus home and saw St. Paul's Cathedral. That is really big and pretty.

I think this building is so cool. Mom said that they are turning it into luxury apartments.

This is a police monument. Kind of sad but really pretty.

It was a long day and we were happy to get off our feet! Lots of walking and learning!

Tower Bridge

After the Tower of London we (Matt, Scout, and I) walked to Tower Bridge…which is right next door. It is a really neat bridge and HUGE! Mom took Sadie home for a nap so she didn’t get to come. We bought some roasted nuts on the way over and a England Sausage hot dog thing. They were both okay. The bridge is beautiful. Here are a couple shots on the bridge.

This little baby loves her daddy!

And the antics...

Whoops.

The tour took you upstairs to the middle top area and had some interesting things. Most of it was famous bridges from around the world. I really enjoyed looking at the video on how they built this bridge. It was a time-lapse video and was pretty cool. They had another video at the beginning which was super corny about how the idea came about.

After you go up and look around (the view was great!) you go back down and then under the bridge to see how it works. This is all fa

Tower of London

Tuesday we went to the Tower of London.  Mom had a pass here too so that was neat that she didn't have to pay. My parents were SUPER nice and got us 6 day   London Passes so we could do all of this without paying. It was really neat and a cool concept. We had to do a lot every day though so we could get our monies worth! (Well, my parent's monies worth anyway :))

We took the bus over there and enjoyed looking around at beautiful London.

We rushed in to see the Crown Jewels because Mom said it would get crowded. It was really cool to see the  crowns. They even had little kid crowns from the prices and princesses. So little. They looked heavy though.

This was a really neat place full of tons of history. A lot of it was a bit gory but it was still really cool. It is one of the most famous attractions here so I was glad to go. Not to mention even I had heard of it before coming here. haha. I have to admit though, as silly as it makes me sound... that I didn't know it was a whole palace. I guess I thought it really was just a tower! But it is a huge space of palace and moat and outer walls and whatnot. 

We took a tour with a yeoman. It was really interesting all of the things that he said. He told us a lot of gory stuff though. He explained what being hung, drawn, and quartered meant though. What a nasty fate!!

Scout was hungry about halfway through so I sat on a bench while Mom, Matt and Sadie listened on. 

We ended the tour in the chapel. The tour guide asked me to stay in the back in case my baby boy needed to be taken out. haha. It was pretty interesting though.

We saw some guards out there and Sadie was a little freaked out. She would not get close to them at all.

This is where some famous people got beheaded...such as Anne Boelyn.

This was one of the Yeomen. It is a job for life and they actually live at the palace. One of them is on guard at the entrance 24-7. 

This is when Mom and I told Matt we were going to go to the bathroom.

When we came out he and Sadie had disappeared. Mom and I looked for him for a while and then I went in two different museums and looked around while Mom waited for him. About an hour and a half later we decided that we were just going to go home...The original plan was for Mom to take Sadie home and me Matt and Scout go look at the Tower Bridge. But since we couldn't find him and we didn't want to wait for forever we were just going to go.

Right then, of course, he shows up. I was not happy with him. I was tired and hungry. Mom left with Sadie and Matt wanted to go look at the museum so I told him I would wait for him in the cafe. It took him almost two hours to do that. I was tired and grouchy. Poor Matt. Someday I will go back without kids so I can enjoy more. But what I did learn and see I loved!! Definitely a recommendation for anyone travelling to London!

Hampton Court

This little girl is so cute! :) We were fortunate that Dad could take the day off to play with us and go to Hampton Court, which is one of the palaces. They have a palace pass so they can get in for free to all the palaces. That is nice. They probably use it a lot when taking everyone! Mom and Dad are so helpful with the babies so that is nice!

Apparently she likes to stick out her tongue. I didn't realize this until I was looking back at pictures but she sticks it out a LOT!

Matt read up on the palace on the train while Grampy entertained Miss Sadie.

This week was Spring Break for the schools around here and so they were doing extra things, such as this demonstration. 

Hampton Court was originally built for a friend of the King Henry VIII...but he fell out of favor so the King took it for himself and enlarged it. 

Where did she learn to be so naughty?

Looking for the Royal Boat.

We enjoyed sitting for a minute by these people.

The architecture here in London is amazing! Way cooler than in the US. Look at these for instance. 

They also do a really nice job with the flowers. The tulips were awesome. They had sections and sections of colorful tulips. Yay for Spring!

Next we went to the maze they had and tried to find the middle. We let Sadie lead. She did really good until the end...then Matt took us there.

Matt wanted to take Sadie back in to throw her over the vine and Mom and I waited. Good picture Grampy!

These people love each other. 

This palace is so pretty! Not what you would imagine it looking like but still pretty neat. They said that some of it burned down a couple decades ago but that it was mostly restored. Another person told us that there are thousands of rooms in the palace that no one goes to. 

They had the largest vine in the world here so we went to look at that. We thought it was this place but come to find out it wasn't. 

This was right outside the largest vine. I just thought they were so pretty so I had to take a picture. 

Happy.

We were tired so while we waited for Daddy and GRampy to go through some of the palace rooms we watched the dancers perform. They grabbed people from the audience to learn the dance. Thank goodness I had children so I didn't have to go out and dance!

Here are some fun people. The one guy asked if we were from the states. I told him yes. He said something snarky to me and so I was snarky back. He told me that an area there was named after him. Carolina he said. I told him I had heard of it. He asked if it was doing well and so I told him it was doing so well they split it in to two. A north and south. Anyway, he was really funny and very in character so that was good. 

Some family pictures!

This girl was hungry and tired!!

One of the only things I remember was that Queen Caroline was though absurd because she believed in the practice of washing with soap! How funny huh?

It was a really neat experience and I am glad that we could go. And I am really glad Dad could take the day off to come and play with us! It was fun!